Environmental Timeline

Events

George Perkins Marsh

1864

considered by some to be America's first environmentalist and the precursor to the sustainability concept. His book Man and Nature (1864) constituted an early work of ecology, and played a role in the creation of the Adirondack Park.

John Muir

Sept. 30, 1890

On September 30, 1890, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that essentially followed recommendations that Muir had suggested in two Century articles

Theodore Roosevelt

1901

After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt used his authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments by enabling the 1906 American Antiquities Act. During his presidency,Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.

Reclamation Act

1902

a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.

Gifford Pinchot

1905

American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910

US Forest Service

1905

transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry, henceforth known as the United States Forest Service.

Migratory Bird Act

1918

makes it illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird

Aldo Leopold

1935

Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management.

Soil Conservation Act

1935

a United States federal law that allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production so as to conserve soil and prevent erosion.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

1962

Carson had written about how the reckless use of pesticides was contaminating the natural environment and slowly poisoning living things. ... Carson believed in her book

Clean Air Act

1970

Set emission standards for cars and limits for release of air pollutants

Earth Day

April 22, 1970

Anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement

Clean water Act

1972

Set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways; aims to make surface waters swim able and fish able

Energy Policy and Conservation Act

1975

a United States Act of Congress that responded to the 1973 oil crisis by creating a comprehensive approach to federal energy policy.

Love Canal

1977

21800 tons of chemical contaminants had entered the groundwater and were released into the environment

Superfund Law

1980

a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.

IPCC

1988

UN Created panel for assessing impacts of climate change and helping control and reverse it

Montreal Protocol

1989

an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.

Persian Gulf War

1990

Gulf War included destruction of sewage treatment plants in Kuwait, resulting in the discharge of over 50,000 cubic metres of raw sewage every day into Kuwait Bay. Secondly, specific weapons likely to be used against Iraq will also create environmental damage